Narrowboat Just Heaven

The problem we had was that we, and the boat, were in Kinver and the car was in Kidderminster. We had consulted the bus timetable for the 580 service to Kidderminster, but we were a little confused as to where we needed to catch the bus. It was further confused because the route had recently been changed due to the extensive road works in Kinver High st.
We weren’t sure which way the bus would come along the High st. The timetable said the stop was outside the Health Centre, but people we asked said it stopped outside the Co-op, which is on the other side of the road.
We decided to believe the timetable and waited outside the Health Centre. At around the right time a bus appeared, but it was going the wrong way, on the other side. Luckily the road works traffic lights turned red and the bus stopped. We dashed across the road and asked the driver if he was going to Kidderminster- he was. He also cleared up the confusion, the bus goes both ways along the High st. It goes one way, then round some houses and comes back the other way.
The ride to Kidderminster was interesting, we were the only fare paying passengers. There were about 10 or so others, but they were all pensioners with bus passes. It was quite a community, everyone knew each other and the driver.

We got to Kidderminster, picked up the car and drove to Stourport to hand in to the BW office the electronic fob for the Roundhill Wharf gate. Then we drove to Kinver, but couldn’t get in the boaters car park as we dont have a key yet. This meant a long walk with all our stuff. Hopefully we will have sorted a key in time for the next visit.

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Only a short day today, so a lateish start for us at around nine o’clock. We hadn’t been going long when, just after bridge 43, we noticed a large Sainsbury’s store. It looked fairly new, but I don’t know how we had missed it on the way up. It will prove very useful as it will no longer be as easy to call in on the supermarkets in Kidderminster as we used to.

We arrived at the new mooring mid afternoon. I spent a little while working out the best way to tie up and how to fix the fenders. I decided to clip them on the fender hangers below the gunnels. We dont usually use these as they arent always in the right place. Normally I use the ones which clip over the handrail, but these are easily stolen and can scrath the paintwork in left in the same place for a long time I think that I’ll try to get some old tyres to fix to the bank like several other of the boats have.
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We went for a walk up to the High st. To work out which was the quickest way we went via the footpath through the horse fields and came back around the roads. The verdict - footpath : 20mins;  road : 17mins.

Heddi washed the other side of the boat whilst I fiddled about in the engine hole topping up the batteries and refilling the stern gland greaser.

We had an early night and were in bed before nine o’clock!

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Another day that started off cold but warmed up later. By the time we got to Bratch it was gorgeous sunshine.

We stopped off at Compton to top up with diesel and gas at Limekiln and visit the charity shop and Daisy freezer centre. The afternoon was fairly quiet with very few boats on the move. I quite expected a queue at Bratch, but we waited for one to come out of the top lock and then we were straight down.

There were lots of fisher folk and picnickers around at the bottom, but we moored up in our usual spot on the non towpath side. At about 6 o’clock they all left, it was as if someone had blown a whistle saying “time’s up!”.

Bratch Bottom Lock

Heddi washed one side whilst I did a few jobs and then we both did the brasses. We were going to have our supper outside, but as soon as the sun went down it chilled off.

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The morning started bright & sunny so we made an earlish start at around 8:00. Even though it was sunny it was still very cold, especially on the exposed section between Coven and Hatherton.  Quite a few boats about today, though we didnt have to queue at all, just occasionally wait for a boat already in a lock.

A “full english” was taken just outside Otherton Marina at around 11 o’clock and we arrives at Park Gate lock just after three.

I winded in the hire company’s basin (most of their boats were out) and we moored up and walk to Midland Chandlers.
They didn’t have a chimney our size (Liverpool boats have odd sized chimneys) but Heddi bought some magic stuff to clean boats with!

By now the weather was really warm and we had a very pleasant chug back to just below Boggs lock.

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It was really cold this morning, but the sun came out this afternoon and it has warmed up a bit.

We had been moored up for a while when an old working boat came past very quickly and very fast. We rocked about so much that things fell off of shelves and out of cupboards. The boat moored up about 100yds ahead. I went up to talk to the boater about the excessive speed. He response was “I can go 4mph on the canals and 6mph on rivers”. The boat was in a very poor state of repair. The old boater looked pretty rough too!

We walked over to Limekiln Chandlery to get a replacement chimney, but they didnt have one our size, so we decided to try Midland Chandlers in Penkridge later in the week.

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We are moored up on our new mooring at Kinver. We won it in a BW auction. Ours is the last one before Hyde Lock. It’s much quieter and more pleasant here than in Kidderminster, but not so convenient for the shops.

Last night was spent at the old mooring, and then this morning I had another go at mending the leak in the calorifier. After several goes at soldering over the leak I still havent sorted it completely, there is still some seepage. I think the next step is to take the calorifier out completely as the access is poor in situ.

Not long after we arrived here a woman came up and tapped on the window. “Are you planning to spend the night there?” We explained to her that we were the new “tenants”. She introduced herself as from NB “Dancing Lady” and went on to give us lots of info about the mooring and the occupants of the other boats. It seems that there is a real boaters community here, which is something we didnt have in Kidderminster.

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